I ate at Paris Baggette franchise for the first time. There were ~40 new stores opened this year (total franchise has 180+ in the US).
Overall, I like the place but don't like the prices. The Business model appears to be quite successful in the US- they have overpriced but superior quality goods, make good margin. Customers come because of the good environment and the unusually large variety of good items.
It would be interesting to find out how many things they make in-house and how many things are shipped to them frozen.
What makes the bakery items unusual is that they are obviously designed for maximum aesthetic appearance in order to justify the $4 donut.
Interestingly enough the Cake section appears to be the worst part of the franchise. The cakes appeared to be designed mainly for their beauty than for the taste. The cakes are also very expensive for the small size, a relatively small cake is $40, $50.
The pastries are all high quality in appearance and have huge variety.
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The only reasonably priced item I bought was the raison bread ($5 for 1 lb loaf). It is high quality bread with a very fine and glossy-mildly oily texture.
The Blueberry Yogurt Cake Slice was $7 for small slice. It was good but disappeared in a few bites. I would describe it as having a good variety of flavors but too light in taste. What is noticeable is the tasteless white cream on top, this appears to be the main thing on most of the cakes. Overall this cake style is Asian and not suited to American tastes.
The cheese & Bratwurst croissant ($4) was very good and had a lot of subtle flavors.
The Curry Croquette was good ($4) but could use stronger flavors.